ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE TINDAL, Australia -- All Marines are vital to the training down here, but the primary mission of Exercise Southern Frontier is ensuring pilots receive proper ordnance training, and whereever bombs are being dropped, ordnance Marines are sure to be close by.
“Southern Frontier is an air-to-ground deployment and without ordnance it’s hard to practice air-to-ground,” said Gunnery Sgt. Tod A. Knueppel, Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 121, ordnance division noncommissioned officer in charge. “The air crew can run simulations but they can’t simulate the bomb coming off the aircraft and what it does to the aircraft itself without ordnance.”
While deployed here, ordnance Marines receive experience loading a wide variety of bombs, including Mark 80 series bombs, highly explosive bombs, five-inch rockets and even guided bomb units, which is valuable training they are unable to receive while stationed aboard Iwakuni.
“We receive a lot of good training in Australia. It’s one of the few areas where pilots are able to drop every kind of ordnance,” said Knueppel.
Besides loading bombs, ordnance Marines are responsible for maintaining aircraft components, performing routine system functional checks and electrical system check, which are essential to making sure bombs deploy properly.
“We have a lot of responsibilities out here,” said Sgt. Joshua D. Quigley, VMFA (AW)-121 ordnance line chief. “Maintaining a 100 percent flight schedule leaves us little room for error.”
Although the atmosphere is a little more hectic in Australia, it’s definitely beneficial to the training of younger Marines. Unlike most deployments, Southern Frontier is unique because the ordnance section is made up from two units, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 212 and VMFA (AW)-121.
“We have two squadrons out here and the best way for the new guys to learn their job is to be out here loading all these different types of bombs, so maybe one day they can lead the shop,” said Quigley.
“We are a small piece of the pie, but we are definitely an essential piece,” said Knueppel.